AllenMadding.COM

Last Monday we had a called full staff meeting. Once everyone was assembled,  our office's project manager called our company's headquarters and one of the corporate VPs came on the line to announce our office would be closing permanently at the end of August. Many in the room were shocked. I was not one of them. I have learned over the years to pay close attention to the small details and to read the signs. In the last 14 years, I have survived two small businesses where I was employed collapsing. Unfortunately, they were consecutive jobs. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. But both of those experiences taught me a great deal including the tell-tale signs to notice. Both of these situations also taught me lessons in faith much like the lessons learned through surviving divorce.  After the second small business collapse and subsequent layoffs, it took awhile to find another job. The concerns regarding paying the mortgage, child support, and all o

It's been a bitterly cold winter in the Metro Atlanta area including the much publicized snow and ice Apocalypse. It was a warm 44F today, and we had to get outside and enjoy some natural serenity. And there is no better place than Gibbs Gardens for that kind of decompression. Here are a few pictures to help bridge you to spring's eventual arrival and a poem by Wordsworth. Photo credits: The Author Daffodils I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Photo credits: The Author Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. Photo credits: The Author The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves